Friday, March 20, 2015

It’s been a year since Russia launched the Russo-Ukraine War of 2014-15 by
invading Ukraine via Crimea, home of
Crimean Tatars and a picturesque vacation
play land on the Black Sea.

Throughout Russia’s war with Ukraine I focused on the
political and military battles in the eastern oblasts of Ukraine. However, Moscow’s
conquest of Crimea should not be demeaned because Crimean Tatars are suffering as
much as all Ukrainians are due to Russian
aggression.

The Kremlin executed its fiendish plan several days after
the conclusion of the inauspicious
Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. I point out this timeline because it
shows that Vladimir Putin and the Russian hierarchy had the audacity to engage in
seemingly warm and friendly discussions with world leaders for many months and agree
to host what is considered the epitome of the world’s festival of peace while
plotting an unprovoked military attack on a peace-loving neighbor. But with
each day, as the war spread around Ukraine to the east, and the number of
sorties over the EU by Russian jets increased, Moscow’s plans started to fill
out the missing lines.

In the ensuing 12 months Russia held a fabricated
referendum, illegally annexed the peninsula and converted Crimea into a penal colony akin to Devil’s Island and
the once nuclear-free cape into a citadel
of Russian nuclear weapons and strategic bombers. This escalation of Russia’s
nuclear posture and visible threat to
global peace and stability should enrage all citizens of the world –
Ukrainians, Crimean Ukrainians and others.

In a single cold-hearted fell swoop Russia violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a host of
other military and geopolitical agreements, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Led by their spiritual leader septuagenarian Mustafa Dzhemilev, a Soviet-era
dissident and laureate of Poland’s Solidarity Award, Crimean Tatars have been
the backbone of the resistance to Russian occupation and Crimea’s liberation
campaign. Russia has responded with arrests even of those Crimean Tatars who
have merely maintained their cultural rights.

Crimean Tatars, who had finally returned to their ancestral
land after Soviet Russian deportation and half a century of fighting against
the empire, find themselves oppressed by the latest manifestation of Russia’s totalitarian
nature. They still nurture horrible
memories of the 1944 deportation that ripped them from their native land.
With Russia again controlling their land and lives, they fear pressure is
building once more. They are again being forced to succumb to new tyrants or leave
their motherland.

Dzhemilev recalled those tense days a year ago:

“The ‘green men,’
or, in other words, Russian saboteurs,
first appeared in Sevastopol, where
they began seizing administrative buildings, and four days later the same thing
started happening in Simferopol.
There were 110 of them. After this appeared tanks, helicopters, APCs, columns
of soldiers. This happened later. At that time Ukraine was asking – in order to
avoid bloodshed – not put up any resistance. There were high expectations that
the international community would not allow for this international delinquency
in the 21st century. But nothing happened.

“All possible measures are being undertaken to compel the
Crimean Tatars to become obedient Russian citizens. Since it appears highly
unlikely, the main stakes are on creating conditions, which would force them to
leave the Crimean territory. At the same time, large numbers of ethnic Russians
are being brought in from the Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts, and are being
settled close to the Crimean Tatar villages – seemingly, in case of any
possible conflicts. Raids in search of the so-called banned literature and
weapons are being carried out. In fact, the term ‘banned literature’ is a novelty for Ukraine, we didn’t know what it
was a while back.

“It is a large list of approximately 2,600 book titles, which are constantly being added, and which, as
it turns out, you are not allowed to read, not allowed to store, it constitutes
a crime. Each person who reads is at risk of being searched, while he might not
even be aware that he owns banned literature. Above all, people are fear-ridden
about people going missing (initially a person disappears, and then he is
usually found dead). I think, mandatory conscription into the Russian armed
forces would contribute to the further exodus of Crimean Tatars from their
land.

“If you aren’t registered, you pay a large fine, then a criminal case is initiated and you are
faced with up to five years of incarceration. I don’t know a single Crimean
Tatar who would have wanted to serve within the Russian army. Hence, I fear
that they will be moving: either looking for a job or joining the Ukrainian
army. But in this case, their family members would be victimized. Therefore,
there is now a tendency to leave and to bring along one’s family members. So it
turns out that, the Crimean Tatars, who came back to their motherland after the
deportation, after half a century of fighting against the totalitarian Soviet
regime, have yet again found themselves under a totalitarian regime which is
worse than the Soviet one. And they are forced to leave their motherland all
over again.”

At least five Tatars
have been kidnapped since then, and two more are missing, according to
human rights observers. Two Tatars have died under mysterious circumstances.

Other harassment has been more noticeable. Russian security
forces shuttered the headquarters of the Tatars’ representative body, the
Mejlis, in September, because its leaders had not registered it in Russia. The
council members fear that doing so would delegitimize them.

In the years of Ukrainian independence, Crimean Tatars have
said they had forgotten what security police alarms or raids sounded like. They
said with independent Ukraine they had the freedom to promote their language,
culture and religion.

Dzhemilev, now living in exile in Kyiv, observed: “The Russian Federation is a totally alien
country. We have always declared that we see the future of our country as
part of Ukrainian territory.” Other Tatar leaders who tried to meet him at the
security checkpoint at the border have been fined up to $220, a sum that is
close to the average monthly income in Crimea.

After Moscow seized Crimea, Dzhemilev said Russians invited him
to Moscow. “I talked to Putin for half an hour. He promised me they would help
the Crimean Tatars. I told him, ‘You can assist us by taking away the
military,’ ” he recalled.

International observers are keeping tabs on events in Crimea
and have condemned Russian occupational authorities for their repressive
treatment of the Tatar community.

“This is a population with a really tragic history that went
through hell to get back to their historical homeland, were not successful in
having their rights fully recognized by the Ukrainians, and are now coming
under huge pressure from the Russians,”
stated Nils Muiznieks, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights,
who compiled a report about the Crimea crisis that was released in
October 2014.

Muiznieks explained that Russia’s security agency “has one
playbook and it’s based on the North Caucasus, and they’re treating many Tatars
as being potential jihadis.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein
lamented last month the “worrying developments” in Crimea, where “multiple violations” of the rights of
Crimean Tatars are being documented. He said earlier the premises of ATR, the
only television channel broadcasting in the Crimean Tatar language, were raided
by armed, masked men in unmarked military clothing, and the Deputy Head of the
Crimean Tatar Mejlis, Ahtem Ciygoz, was detained, the OHCHR reported. Ciygoz faces
up to 10 years in prison for creating mass disturbances.

Amnesty International said on the eve of the year since
Crimea was seized by Russia, with journalists, activists and peaceful
protestors facing increasing harassment and intimidation in Crimea, there is an
urgent need for a strong international monitoring mission in Ukraine. It is
calling for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to
urgently establish a strong international monitoring mission in the country.

“Attempting to monitor the human rights situation in Crimea has become a near impossible task.
Self-styled Crimean self-defense groups are harassing pro-Ukrainian protesters,
journalists and human rights monitors with complete impunity,” said John
Dalhuisen, Europe and Central Asia Director at Amnesty International.

In the eastern oblasts of Ukraine, similar self-defense
groups, under Russian tutelage, evolved into mercenaries and terrorists,
fighting side-by-side with Russian soldiers against Ukrainian armed forces.

Recently, two representatives of the OSCE were forced to cut
their visit to Crimea short due to security concerns, Amnesty International
wrote in its report. In a separate event, members of the organization were
prevented from even entering the peninsula by unidentified military personnel.

On March 5, the UN Special Envoy to Crimea was also forced
to cut his visit short. Only a few hours after arriving in Crimea, he was
threatened by an aggressive crowd chanting pro-Russian slogans and forced by
armed men to get back in his vehicle and return to the airport.

Amnesty International said Russian occupying authorities in
Crimea have failed to investigate a series of abductions and torture of their
critics since the violence that led to Russia’s mostly unrecognized annexation
of the peninsula from Ukraine a year ago. The human rights NGO said Crimea’s
Russian-supported leaders have cracked
down on dissent, creating a climate of fear in the annexed Ukrainian
region, with many of the regime's more vocal critics opting to leave.

It cites “violations
of the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association in Crimea
[and] highlights human rights abuses by the de facto authorities, including the
failure to investigate a series of abductions and torture of their critics, and
their unrelenting campaign of intimidation against pro-Ukrainian media,
campaigning organizations, Crimean Tatars and other individuals critical of the
regime.”

The global human rights watchdog said it has documented the
disappearances of three Crimean Tatars: Islyam
Dzhepparov, 19, and Dzhevdet
Islyamov, 23, were pushed into a van by four men in black uniform on
September 29, 2014, and have not been seen since. Reshat Ametov, 39, was seized while attending a demonstration in March
last year. His body was found later with signs of torture. Andriy Schekun, the leader of Ukrainian House, an organization
promoting Ukrainian language and culture, was abducted by pro-Russian
paramilitaries and held for 11 days in a secret location where he was
electrocuted in March 2014. He was eventually handed over to the Ukrainian
military.

Amnesty International said no one was held responsible in
none of these cases.

The organization said the Russians and their puppets are
also using intimidation and restrictive laws to silence the media and NGOs.

At a UN Security Council meeting on March 6, Ivan Šimonović, assistant
secretary-general for human rights, noted that the situation in Crimea was
deteriorating with systematic human rights violations affecting mostly Crimean
Tatars and those who had opposed the March referendum.

At that meeting, Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite, permanent representative of Lithuania, a
leading supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia, pointed out “There were
disturbing reports of violations against the Tatar community, which had largely
opposed the ‘sham’ referendum a year ago, and fundamental freedoms had been
severely curtailed in Russian-annexed Crimea.”

Ambassador Yuriy
Sergeyev, permanent representative of Ukraine, added then: “The human
rights situation in Crimea was deteriorating, and the Council should act
immediately to deal with those and other outrages. Under no circumstances
could the United Nations accept that Russia had turned Crimea into an isolated
military camp and its residents into recluses.”

Beyond persecution, Russia has also begun to build a dangerous stockpile of nuclear and
conventional weapons that has the potential of changing the balance of power
in the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea regions, and destabilizing global peace.

“We have seen a drastic buildup of military capabilities of
the Russian armed forces in Crimea [which added to] already existing naval
capabilities,” Maxim Shepovalenko, a senior research fellow at the Center for
Analysis of Strategies and Technologies in Moscow, recently told NBC News.

Russia has reinforced ground forces and air defense on
Crimea — roughly doubling its military manpower there — with some 25,000 to
30,000 soldiers.

According to state news agency TASS, Russia is planning to
send Tu-22M3 bombers capable of carrying nuclear warheads to Crimea as part of its
massive nationwide military drills. The plan repeats earlier claims by the
Russian Foreign Ministry that Russia does not rule out placing nuclear
weapons on the peninsula and conventional Russian forces in Crimea are set to
increase, military observers say.

Additionally, a separate report said Backfire Tu-22M3
bombers and Tupolev Tu-95s will join Iskander mobile ballistic missile systems already
believed to be on the peninsula.

Most of the world’s leaders have condemned Russia’s invasion
and annexation of Crimea and support
maintaining sanctions against Moscow until it returns Crimea to Ukraine.
Unfortunately, contemporary history has shown that words do not dissuade Russia
from war.

Jen Psaki, US
State Department spokesperson, reaffirmed the US position, saying: “On this one
year anniversary of the sham ‘referendum’ in Crimea, held in clear violation of
Ukrainian law and the Ukrainian constitution, the United States reiterates its
condemnation of a vote that was not voluntary, transparent, or democratic. We
do not, nor will we, recognize Russia’s attempted annexation and call on
President Putin to end his country’s occupation of Crimea.
“This week, as Russia attempts to validate its cynical and calculated ‘liberation’
of Crimea, we reaffirm that sanctions related to Crimea will remain in place as
long as the occupation continues. The United States continues to support
Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and right to self-determination.”

For the past 12 months, and despite Western sanctions,
Crimea has been rapidly becoming a central plank of Putin’s political platform.
State media has portrayed the annexation as an historic victory against an
encroaching West intent on degrading Russia. In a documentary broadcast earlier
this month, Putin revealed, sometimes with evident satisfaction and almost step
by step, how Russian special forces had taken control of Crimea, rescuing its
people, he said, from rampaging Ukrainian nationalists. Russia initially also
used this ruse to launch the Russo-Ukraine War of 2014-15.

Nonetheless, Crimean Tatars continue with their resistance. In early March, troubled by
the rising number of pro-Russian rallies, they began to stage demonstrations in
Simferopol and elsewhere.

​​The resistance reached its peak with mass protests on
International Women's Day, March 8, when as many as 15,000 protesters – mainly
women and children – lined roadways throughout Crimea waving Ukrainian and
Tatar flags and holding posters calling for peace.
“Many Crimeans came out, no matter their nationality,” said Andriy Shchekun, a Simferopol-based
activist. “It was a consolidation, a demonstration of how all Crimeans felt. In
principle it was the real majority, and we saw the real picture. We organized a
major event without allocated money or political connections. It was a true
civil protest against what was happening in Crimea.”
Many of the protesters extended their activities to include aiding besieged
Ukrainian soldiers and fighting off members of the so-called self-defense
forces of pro-Russian youths harassing activists and others.

Members of the Crimean intelligentsia were also active during
the protests. Halyna Dzhikayeva,
whose Karman art center was known for staging politically provocative works,
said a majority of her audiences were openly opposed to the Russian invasion.
“We cultivated our audience to think,” she said. “Our performances weren’t
light entertainment. They forced people to think critically about the things
going on around them. So the people who went to the theater, who came to see
our performances, were independent-minded.”

With tourists deterred from vacationing in Crimea after Russia
militarized it, Moscow has had to subsidize
Crimea’s floundering budget at the level of 85%, just like in the troubled
territories of Chechnya and Ingushetia, Ukrainian online newspaper Ukrainska
Pravda reported, with reference to Russian daily newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta.
Russia has had to sign all of the invoices for the peninsula’s utilities.
World leaders have cast their support for Ukraine and Crimea, pledging not to reverse
their position until Crimea is returned to Ukraine.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson marked the first anniversary of the referendum in
Crimea this week by vowing Canada will never accept the outcome.

In his statement, Nicholson said Canada’s position on the
issue remains firm. “Canada will never recognize the illegal annexation of
Crimea,” he said.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen
Harper issued the following statement to mark illegal annexation of Crimea
by Russia:

“A year ago this week, the so-called Crimean ‘referendum’
was held under the Putin regime’s influence to legitimize the illegal
annexation of Crimea by Russia two days later.

“Whether it takes five months or 50 years, Canada will never
recognize this annexation as being the genuine will of the Ukrainian people. We
have instead maintained our call that the Putin regime cease the
destabilization campaign it has orchestrated and fully withdraw from Crimea and
eastern Ukraine.”

To mark the repulsive anniversary of Crimea’s enslavement,
President Petro Poroshenko of
Ukraine wrote in a column titled “Crimea
Is Still Ukraine” in the March 19 edition of The Wall Street Journal. In
which he wrote:

“I myself witnessed the illegal and shameful occupation, and
never will I forget or excuse it. When I visited the Crimean capital of
Simferopol to help negotiate a settlement one year ago, I saw many ‘little
green men,’ who were in fact heavily armed professional soldiers. Although they
were masked and disguised, with their uniforms and markings altered, it was
clear that every command for the occupation had come from one source: the
Kremlin…

“However, we cannot for a moment ignore the brutal violence
currently being inflicted in eastern Ukraine, nor can we forget Crimea’s
annexation…

“Crimea is not merely a Ukrainian issue. For arguably the
first time since World War II, one country has unilaterally appropriated the
territory of another, setting a dangerous precedent in the conduct of
international relations…

“On March 27, 2014, 100 United Nations member states voted
in favor of a resolution affirming support for the territorial integrity of
Ukraine and recognition of Crimea as a part of Ukraine. We remember and
appreciate this display of international solidarity in a time of need. And we
believe that the Crimean people will regain their native land…

“One year later, Crimea
still is Ukraine, and it is our joint responsibility with the rest of the
world to undo the injustice de facto and de jure—to make the aggressor go.
Sooner or later Crimea will return to where it belongs, and our joint duty is
to make it sooner—out of respect of the rights of our citizens, to
international law and for the sake of safeguarding global security.”

The United Kingdom also favors maintaining sanctions against
Russia for occupying Crimea. Adam Thomson, Britain’s permanent
representative to NATO, wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “That is why
remembering this anniversary matters. We must not accept Russia’s illegal
annexation of Crimea as a new reality and still less as a new normal.

“Russia, tragically, has suffered strategic derailment
through its adventure in Ukraine. But that does not make its behavior safe.
There is a way out. Russia can still withdraw its troops from Crimea and
eastern Ukraine, abide by its commitments under the Minsk agreements and let
the Ukrainian people run their own country.

“But until this happens, our established position is firm: Crimea’s annexation is unacceptable,
and we will continue to defend our values with sanctions that punish those
responsible.”

Mustafa Dzhemilev arrived in New York City on Thursday,
March 19, to attend an informal meeting of the UN Security Council about
Crimea. At a press conference he urged the free world to maintain strong
sanctions against the Kremlin to pressure the Russian aggressors to leave
without using military force.

Dzhemilev warned that “if
the war starts in Crimea, it will mean the extermination of the entire Crimean
Tatar population in Crimea.”

Dzhemilev painted a grim picture of people in Crimea seeking
to remain part of Ukraine being repressed, of more than 4,000 businesses closing
down and being taken over by “so-called self-defense
groups,” and of “very tense” inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations.

The Tatar leader bemoaned that Crimea used to be a popular
tourist area but is now “being turned
into a military base.”

The informal Security Council meeting was called by
Ambassador Murmokaite of Lithuania. The gathering revealed who are friends of
Ukraine and Crimea and who are enemies of human rights and global peace and
stability. Russia, China, Venezuela and
Angola, by their absence, demonstrated that they are from the dark side.

“Russia is normally
very quick to criticize Ukraine on alleged human rights violations, but
completely ignores human rights violations happening under its own rule or under
its proxy’s rule,” Murmokaite told reporters.

After 12 months of subjugating Crimea and the free world’s
condemnation and sanctions, Russia is adamant about pursuing its colonial
plans. Russia’s escalation of oppression and terror, militarization of the
peaceful peninsula, and amassing a nuclear stockpile in a former nuclear-free
zone demonstrates that it is the global
enemy that must be defeated and not
merely forced into a neutral corner.

The invasion and annexation of Crimea by Russia is a devastating precedent for the free world,
which cannot remain unchanged.